Jericho Beach Park

L ast week, Ralph and I headed over to Locarno Beach. Since it sits right next door to Jericho, our drive followed the exact same route we took to Jericho, save for the final two blocks. The trip in went smoothly; we made decent time along the highway with very few traffic delays. Upon arrival, we cruised through the parking lot and pulled into a stall. It was mostly empty, which made it easy to secure a great spot. We then fed the pay parking meter—or more accurately, wrestled with the parking app on my phone. With that chore out of the way, we set off for a wander. Because the park is far too expansive to walk from end to end in one go, we stuck close to the beach and sailing club areas.

The park boasts a wonderful array of amenities: sailing facilities, playing fields, tennis and pickleball courts, sandy beaches, and numerous scenic walking paths. It is a lovely oasis to enjoy some outdoor activity right in the heart of the city. Interestingly, even though the parking lot was mostly deserted, the number of people out walking dogs and enjoying the park grounds was quite high.

Eventually, we spotted some ideal operating spots down at the far end of the parking lot. I walked back to the car, drove it down to the opposite end, and parked. There, Ralph and I gathered our radio gear and set out for our respective locations. I had chosen a park bench alongside the walkway, featuring a narrow strip of grass behind it that would serve as a great spot for my antenna. Ralph wandered over to a large, empty ball field and spread out along the side of it.

My first task was setting up my portable table and raising the antenna. Once everything was ready, I checked the list of active parks online and noticed fellow club member Jim operating out at Peace Arch Park. I dialed in his frequency and could just make out his voice talking with a remote station. The moment he wrapped up that contact, I called him. He recognized my callsign and voice immediately, even though the signal was quite weak. We successfully completed the contact, after which he went back to calling and I resumed scanning the band. By this point, Ralph was fully set up, and we checked in with each other over our handheld radios. Because we operate across multiple bands—each counting as a separate contact—just a few minutes in had already yielded four logged contacts.

Once I had a few exchanges with Ralph, I returned to the online spots list and managed to work a station in New Jersey operating on the 17-meter band who was doing a "twofer" (activating two parks at once). That brought my total to six contacts. Next, I scanned the 20-meter band and picked up two more contacts from opposite sides of the continent: Maine and Oregon! Following those, I selected a clear frequency on the 15-meter band and began calling. The 15-meter band was much quieter than the 20-meter band, making it significantly easier to catch distant stations. My first contact came from Alaska, followed quickly by Tennessee, Maryland, Michigan, and Texas, along with a sampling from several other states, including two stations in Hawaii. The band performed wonderfully, and it was an absolute blast reaching people all the way from Maine down to California, up to Alaska, and across to Hawaii. Sadly, no European stations made it through today.

While I was busy operating, plenty of people strolled past, though they were all far too engrossed in their pursuit of exercise to stop and ask about my gear. Right as I was finally packing up my station, a passing chap stopped to chat about the activity. He found the whole setup fascinating and was genuinely surprised by the impressive range of my contacts. Once everything was packed, I loaded my gear back into the car and walked over to Ralph, who was just finishing tearing down his own station. I pitched in to help carry his equipment to his car. That was the exact moment I noticed a parking ticket tucked neatly under my windshield wiper.

As it turned out, my parking session—which had plenty of time left on it—was actually paid for my truck's old license plate! In the rush of paying through the app, I had failed to notice it was using the temporary plate number the truck had when I first acquired it. So now, I have to file an appeal to get the ticket canceled. Experiences like this just reaffirm my deep-seated dislike for big cities. Not that Surrey is vastly smaller in population, mind you; it's simply not as built-up in the South Surrey area, and park parking is still blissfully free.

Our drive home started out tracing the exact same route as the previous week, but we were soon forced to divert off SW Marine Drive due to some serious traffic congestion building up right before Oak Street. We followed the detour route, quickly crossed the Fraser River, and finally broke free from the suffocating grasp of the big city. Highway traffic flowed smoothly afterward, save for a brief slowdown right before the tunnel. It felt incredible to be back out among the open fields of Delta and Surrey! I look forward to being done with the Vancouver parks, but there are still several more to be visited.

Post note: appeal successful, ticket cancelled.